[HN Gopher] The dogs of Chernobyl: Populations in the nuclear ex...
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       The dogs of Chernobyl: Populations in the nuclear exclusion zone
       (2023)
        
       Author : IndrekR
       Score  : 102 points
       Date   : 2024-12-03 15:07 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.science.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.science.org)
        
       | jgrahamc wrote:
       | When I was there I met some of these dogs. Here are a couple of
       | photos of the very friendly pooches: https://imgur.com/a/8vsKxzp
        
         | dgb23 wrote:
         | Beautiful creatures! It's interesting that they converged
         | towards that rugged but still very dog-ish appearance.
        
       | IntStorage wrote:
       | *Chornobyl
       | 
       | https://insp.pnnl.gov/-chorninit-spelling.htm#:~:text=The%20....
        
         | silvestreh wrote:
         | Both spellings are correct--they're just in different
         | languages. Chernobil (Spanish) is also correct, but you
         | probably wouldn't point it out because it's not Russian.
        
           | dagenleg wrote:
           | And I'm sure you see that there might me somewhat of a slight
           | issue with calling Ukrainian cities in Russian, considering
           | the political situation.
        
             | ralfd wrote:
             | Considering how the war is going for Ukraine we can just
             | keep using the Russian spelling ...
        
               | outworlder wrote:
               | This is not a place for political propaganda. The war is
               | far from decided.
        
               | gwervc wrote:
               | It was decided years ago, but some politicians and
               | shareholders decided it was a good opportunity to
               | exploit. Also the Russian economy was supposed to
               | collapse few years ago because of UE sanctions. Still
               | waiting for that to happen.
        
               | Retric wrote:
               | I'd call it collapsed, but Russia is used to severe
               | economic issues so their tolerance is rather different.
               | 
               | GDP looks ok with all that military spending and
               | unemployment is down, but the rest of the economy looks
               | terrible.
        
               | trhway wrote:
               | You know, man, you should complete your joke and suggest
               | that, following the Far East cities of Russia, the rest
               | of Russia should also start using Chinese spelling.
        
           | thih9 wrote:
           | I guess it's just as correct as referring to Alaska as
           | "Aljaska" (Russian).
        
             | aguaviva wrote:
             | Except it's not.
             | 
             | Chernobyl is just another popular spelling that people have
             | gotten accustomed to.
             | 
             | But no one outside the Russian Mir ever refers to Alaska as
             | Aljaska.
             | 
             | There's no signficance or import to the chosen spelling.
             | This whole flame war is completely pointless.
        
         | mjfl wrote:
         | I hope you display the same sensitivity when it comes to Gaza.
         | Really tired of Western hypocrisy.
        
           | apelapan wrote:
           | What way of spelling of Gaza do you prefer?
        
         | lionkor wrote:
         | Chernobyl happens to be the popular spelling. Don't start
         | trying to tell people what to say and what not to say, that
         | doesn't fly.
        
         | egorfine wrote:
         | *Chernobyl.
         | 
         | While "Chornobyl" is the current official Ukrainian spelling of
         | the city name, the catastrophe itself took place at the
         | "Chernobyl NPP" and the zone is consequentially named
         | "Chernobyl Exclusion Zone".
         | 
         | Renaming the past is not a way to win the future.
        
       | ulrischa wrote:
       | Since 2017, organizations like the Clean Futures Fund have been
       | providing veterinary care, including vaccination, spaying, and
       | neutering, to manage the dog population and reduce disease
       | transmission risks
        
       | georgeecollins wrote:
       | I want to hear about the cats of Chernobyl! I read in a book that
       | "domesticated" cats are essentially the same as wild cats, they
       | just have different habits because of the way they are raised.
       | That suggests to me that in the absence of a human population
       | (and the right climate) some would survive in the wild.
        
         | trhway wrote:
         | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832311/ (
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaUNhqnpiOE )
         | 
         | "It's been over 20 years since the meltdown at the Chernobyl
         | nuclear power plant. ...
         | 
         | This documentary shows a family of cats whose mother once lived
         | with the former inhabitants of the zone. "
        
         | ftrobro wrote:
         | Domesticated cats survive so well in the wild that they have
         | eradicated several other animal species:
         | 
         | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cats-kill-a-stagg...
        
         | oaththrowaway wrote:
         | My cat spends 99% of her time outside. She likes to come in and
         | hang out with my kids when they get home from school and take a
         | quick nap, but then she's asking to be let out by the time
         | we're eating dinner.
         | 
         | She'd rather be exploring, hunting mice/chipmunks, and fighting
         | off raccoons and skunks for her food and water supply.
        
         | e40 wrote:
         | Wild house cats are called feral cats. They exist all over.
         | They are extremely fearful and/or avoidant of humans. And by
         | "all over" I mean in cities, living among us. A dog, that is
         | lost in a city will invariably find a human to take it in.
         | Sometimes cats will do that, but cats are pickier about their
         | humans than most dogs are. The first generation of cats born in
         | the while will essentially become completely wild once they are
         | adults and the chances of domesticating them is very low.
         | 
         | I, too, would love to see and hear about the cats of Chernobyl.
        
       | trhway wrote:
       | >Of all Chernobyl dog populations, dogs from Slavutych show the
       | greatest haplotype sharing with purebred dogs, particularly with
       | the Labrador retriever, boxer, and Yorkshire terrier
       | 
       | While i can understand Labrador and boxer, where is the Yorkshire
       | comes from? For anybody who remembers dogs in 1986 in USSR you
       | can hardly remember seeing any Yorkshire (or any other small
       | breed really).
        
       | natmaka wrote:
       | "Chernobyl Created the World's Rarest Dogs"
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmVGwOP_zi8
        
       | ryukoposting wrote:
       | After doing a bit more reading about this topic, I'd be really
       | interested to see a follow-up study that includes samples of the
       | local wolf population. Supposedly, one of the reasons the dogs
       | all hang around the power plant is because they get driven out of
       | the woods by wolves. I wonder if there is any genetic cross-over
       | between them.
        
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       (page generated 2024-12-07 23:02 UTC)